
During my stay in Brisbane, I was put up at a hotel right next door to the convention centre where we had the meetings. The hotel is called Mantra South Bank. To be honest, it was more of an apartment rather than a hotel. The room was big, complete with a separate bedroom and loving area, plus a kitchenette and washing machine.
It was designed for a family on vacation rather than a single traveler as myself. But the room was cosy enough, serving a nice breakfast with vegetarian selection. Room service was very minimal however although the were plenty of cafe right next door within walking distance.
I didn't spent much time at the room however as my schedule was packed. The bed was more than adequate, in fact it was quite comfortable with great air-conditioning plus great shower. Nothing to complain really.
They have a gym and swimming pool but as I mentioned, I didn't have much time to spare there. The hotel was around 15 away from the city centre on foot, crossing a bridge and a nice park - where the Wheel of Brisbane was located.
It had a nice cafe by the lobby. The wifi was rather expensive, and there were plenty of shops and a pharmacy if you need to by any personal items.
Mari Ber-Sama-Sama
I learned recently that this year's edition of Urbanscapes would be held in town and one of the main venue would be Medan Pasar. Interesting as it would be central, just behind Central Market and within walking distance from Petaling Street. Public transport would also be straight forward. And from there on, there would be plenty to do - CM, Petaling Street, Dataran Merdeka, Masjid Jamek and Masjid India would be within 10 minutes.
But the drawback was the area had been transformed lately into Mini Kathmandu, with plenty of our foreign guests congregating at the area during weekends meeting their friends when they were off work. Not really a pleasant place to venture at.
As a trial run, I went there last weekend after learning that a bazaar - called Sama-Sama Food Fair - was held there. The sun was blazing and yea, there was a mixture of local and the foreign visitors as well as foreign workers. The bazaar featured local alternative musics as well as local and ASEAN food fair.
I was there quite rather late as I had a long clinic on the Saturday morning. Most of the food was gone, although the music was still playing and it would go on until around 8. The crowd would then go over to KLCC and other venues to celebrate Earth Hour that night. Great timing.
I didn't have much time to spare, and I was off after 30 minutes in time to have some ABC!